A Cupertino artist is juxtaposing present day with some echoes from the past.

Carrie Zeidman released “Ghosts,” a book that takes a unique look at history through present-day photographs overlaid with historical images.

The book includes images Zeidman shot of places with historical significance to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World Wars I and II, Zeidman has digitally added in images of soldiers, prisoners, and even scenes of death and destruction, to accurately reflect what happened at the site.

“The ‘Ghosts’ images, to me, are an interpretation of what I saw in my mind when I stood on the ground where these tragedies occurred,” Zeidman says. “There were battlefields where thousands of men lost their lives in a single day; tropical islands where young sailors woke up in paradise and by nightfall were forever entombed in their own ship; beaches where heroes overcame their fear and bravely did what needed to be done to save or bring freedom to people they would likely never know.”

Zeidman’s digital artistry background is evident in the book. In 2012, she was given that year’s Distinguished Artist award by the city of Cupertino.

“Through art and story, ‘Ghosts’ is a way for me to share my experiences with the viewer by allowing them to visualize what I see in my heart and in my mind,” she says.

Zeidman said the idea for “Ghosts” came to her while on an emotional journey.

“In 2008, with some trepidation, I visited the World War II concentration camps in Poland. It was very emotional for me. Standing in the spot where so many innocent people were tortured and killed for no reason other than who they were was a somber experience,” she says. “Seeing the camps as they look now, and at the same time, seeing the images in my head from the 1930s and ’40s, gave me the idea for the project. I wanted the viewer to have the same experience I did when viewing the camps.”

The book took three years to put together, and Zeidman started a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 to back the project, which had evolved quite a bit by the time it was a finished product.

“The book started out to be just an art book, but as I was putting it together, I realized that some of the images needed some narrative to understand the significance of certain places and times,” she says. “That led to adding a broader explanation of each particular conflict.”

Coincidentally, Zeidman found out a bit about herself in the process.

“While I was creating the art for the book, I was also researching my family tree, and found that I had several relatives that fought in each of the wars, including the Revolutionary War,” she says. “The images I was creating became much more personal for me when I thought about my family members camping in the cold of Valley Forge, or dying in a field in Missouri at the hands of fellow Americans, or on a rainy beach in France.”

A Bay Area native and Cupertino resident since 1989, Zeidman says she has been making art for as long as she can remember. She has done design, illustration, and production for more than 25 years, mostly for Silicon Valley high-tech companies. In 2008, Zeidman began to pursue her own art.

“I took the art style that I had used for commercial illustration and applied it to fine art to create a unique type of image that combines photography and digital illustration,” she says.

Zeidman adds that she hopes the book can give readers a deeper understanding of history and how that history has shaped the modern world.

“I would hope that readers of ‘Ghosts’ come away with a new found respect for the sacrifices made by the many generations of everyday heroes who stood up for what was right, and changed the world,” she says. “If we understand what happened back then, it may help us, and generations that come after us, to make better decisions and possibly avoid repeating the horrors of past wars.”

Kristi Myllenbeck covers all things Cupertino, from crime and breaking news to education and development. She has been working for Silicon Valley Community Newspapers since 2015. She is a San Jose State University alumna and enjoys hiking and camping in her spare time.

[…] Artist Carrie Zeidman’s book GHOSTS is an exciting departure from AFA’s usual selections. A book of truly stunning photographs, GHOSTS is a haunting work, one which evokes, page after page, key events in American and global history where freedom was fought for. From a review of GHOSTS: […]

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